Battle of Dicastica

The Battle of Dicastica was a naval battle fought off the coast of Attica in 431 BC during the Peloponnesian War. A small Athenian naval force succeeded in destroying a larger Spartan ship with the help of the mercenary Kassandra, who also freed several Athenian prisoners from their captors on the beach.

Background
In 431 BC, at the start of the Peloponnesian War, the Athenian politician and general Cleon sent Heremos and Onomakles on an important mission to Mytilene to arm the locals for a rebellion against Sparta. However, as the two men left a besieged Athens, they were captured by Spartan patrols and taken to the Mt. Pentelikos Marble Quarry, where Heremos was tortured into giving away the Athenian plan before being hanged. Onomakles, the captain of the ship which carried the supplies, was wounded in the leg and thrown into a cage, and Spartan soldiers found his ship and took its crew captive, holding them in a cage at the beach.

Cleon sent the mercenary Kassandra to rescue Heremos, who had gone missing, and she headed to the quarry and found Heremos' hanging body, retrieving a letter from his body. Kassandra went on to find a wounded Onomakles in his cage, and he told her that she could still complete the mission if she took him to his ship. Kassandra loaded him onto the back of her horse, and she dropped him off on top of a hill overlooking the beach after noticing that the Spartans had reached the beach first, taken his crew captive, and stationed a large trireme in the harbor. She told Onomakles that she would free the crew, kill the Spartan soldiers on the beach, and destroy the Spartan ship.

Battle
Kassandra headed to her ship, Adrestia, in the harbor and then sailed into battle with the Spartan ship. The smaller Athenian ships were weakened by the larger Spartan ship, but the Adrestia was able to immobilize the Spartan ship before boarding it. Kassandra and her crew attacked the Spartan crew, killing captain Polyxeinos the Seafarer and his lieutenant Lykaretos the Helper while her crew finished off the rest of the crew. Kassandra and her crew salvaged the sinking Spartan ship's wood to repair her own ship, and they also looted its materials. Kassandra proceeded to return to dry land to rescue the Athenian prisoners, and she slew the Spartan soldiers and the mercenary Praxiteles the Benevolent before freeing the prisoners.